Protesting against the fee hike, 66 Panjab University students were charged with sedition and other criminal offenses, after a complaint was filed by a security officer on April 11. The Chief security officer, Ashwani Kaul at PU, said his complaint was ‘misinterpreted’, after an outrage broke on the sedition charges slapped on the students.
However, a senior police officer said, the charges would be dropped if no ‘substantial evidence is found.
According to the reports published in The Indian Express, the security officer said, “On behalf of PU, I filed a police complaint and stated that the protesters raised slogans against the state. Here by the word ‘state’, I meant Ministry of Human Resources Development, UGC and PU.”
“The protesters were raising slogans such as ‘PU murdabad, ‘MHRD murdabad’ and ‘UGC murdabad’. Police misinterpreted and slapped sedition charges on them. I have examined CCTV footage and video recordings of the protest and have clarified the situation to Chandigarh Police,” he further added.
During the protest, the students pelted stones while the security forces used water cannons and teargas to control the violence.
The case was registered against the accused under Sections 124-A (sedition), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 3 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
The fee hike for the 2017-18 academic session, is said to be necessitated in the wake of a financial crisis being faced by Panjab University, which has led to up to 1,100 per cent increase in fee of some courses.
In some courses like B Pharma, the fee was raised from Rs 5,080 to Rs 50,000 and in MA (journalism) course, the fee was hiked from Rs 5,290 to Rs 30,000. For dental course, the fees were increased from Rs 86,400 to Rs 1.5 lakh.
